opinion article

Intelligence Agencies and the Political Atmosphere

One of the key practices of Iran’s intelligence agencies is to box public opinion with the purpose of controlling the behavior of people during unforeseen events that could erupt in the future. Civil society has been alert to this in recent years and has acted wisely.

Another goal that Iranian security agencies pursue in controlling public opinion is to prevent people from participating in discussions that may result in shaping the political direction of the country. Keeping the political atmosphere shut for the gradual entry of undemocratic discussions or the spread of fake discussions and political groups are activities that take place within Iran’s civil society.

But such actions by civil activists can be exploited by security agents and can turn friends into enemies. A security agent who had left the agency had said that in 2000 that the agency had been trying control and direct public opinion without any cost incurred to it. He said that the agency would sometimes move a few interrogators around solely for the purpose of changing the narratives they created and moving them somewhere else. “Had we intervened directly public opinion would have resisted so we moved the interrogators and began a discussion that we intended. Things such as accusing prisoners of receiving money from Westerners or creating ethical issues, injecting fake information, etc.”

The ministry of intelligence has viewed public opinion as the most important political issue and has used every possible means to polarize public opinion, to split it, to dislodge it from any resources through the use of deception.

This defected agent had revealed, “We identified the strengths and weaknesses of individuals and then used these at the right time so that the victim was completely unaware of them yet we derived the biggest results through the smallest actions.” He continued, “At times, we juxtaposed what was principal with what was peripheral. We created discussion and action frameworks and people would drown in them on their own. We even shaped the discussion in virtual social networks in this manner and thus channeled people’s behavior.”

Haj Dawood Karimi whose name could not even be mentioned for some time, said upon his release from prison, “They will make you so scared of starvation that you would long for poisoned food.” Karimi was the first Revolutionary Guard commander for Tehran but was removed and outcast during the first years of the revolution. He had said, “You must be careful because they channeled public opinion in a manner that we would doubt and then reject ourselves. We would destroy what we had worked for with our own hands.” He explained that Iran’s intelligence agencies pinned individuals against each other, friends against each other, groups against each other and social classes against each other, turning these individuals into pawns under their control. “Stay alert,” he warned, “and examine everything that you hear or see very carefully and be weary of what benefits and harm each of these brings to the regime. And don’t forget, it is our actions that either promotes or destroys their plans.”

For some time now we have been witness to the various means that intelligence and security agents of Iran use to control the political atmosphere and public debates and discussions. But this onslaught can be confronted with knowledge and awareness. Their goal is to destroy the democratic beliefs and principles among those who work for democracy, beliefs such as tolerance, patience and respect for other views. If they succeed, the roots of democracy-building in Iran will be damaged.

The regime intends to impose its cultural principles and keep the initiative in its own hands without leaving any trace of its footprints. Our duty on the other hand is to identify the actions that the government embarks through which it controls public’s cultural and behavioral elements. Rather than challenging pro-democracy activists directly, the regime does this indirectly through cultural elements and strives to destroy those social and cultural elements on which democracy is based.

Some time ago I received a Facebook message from a political activist who had been released from prison some weeks earlier. He then obtained political refugee status in Turkey. He told me through a Skype session that while everyone thought that he was a political activist opposition the regime, he had in fact been the ministry of intelligence’s mole and infiltrator prior to his request for asylum. While he worked undercover inside political opposition groups, his duty was to dogmatically spread his narrow views among other members of the group and even on Facebook and in the virtual social networks. He further said that his extremism in supporting the views of the group, which he said he was sure existed among other members, diluted the political atmosphere and pushed it toward intolerance. He advanced ideas and actions that brought forth and spread revenge, suppression, selfishness etc. within the group. This infiltrator said that the ministry of intelligence pushed opposition political groups to confront, face and ultimately battle each other. Waldemar Gurian writes that totalitarianism collapses if it cannot control and shape public opinion. He argues that if such regimes fail to use terror and fear among the public, they fail.

What is clear is that democracy building in Iran is threatened with control of public opinion by the regime and the security and intelligence agencies of the regime play a key role in controlling and channeling public opinion and public debates. They propagate values that destroy respect for human virtues and positive humanistic values, on which democracy rests. It is the duty of every democratic person to be alert about the views and opinions that we acquire which have over time come to dominate us and which may in fact be the pillars of the security structure that the regime has built. These pillars may in fact be the pillars of the Islamic republic and we may be involuntarily supporting them.